In The News

Europe Frets Over Foreign Investments in Defense Industry

Clara Marina O’Donnell October 15, 2010
Sovereign wealth funds are estimated to manage close to $4 trillion of assets. European governments are increasingly concerned about such powerful investors, the bulk of which are from Asia and the Middle East, showing interest in their defense industries especially at a time when Europe must curtail its own defense investments. EU member states acknowledge that their national industrial bases...

Chinese Investors Flock to London to Buy Real Estate

Julia Werdigier, Bettina Wassener September 29, 2010
An influx of wealthy Chinese are snapping up high-end London properties. Representing 5 percent of buyers and growing, they are favored by brokers for paying in cash in an effort to evade Chinese capital regulations. To cash in on the influx, brokers hire Mandarin and Cantonese speakers and even open offices in China; some buildings omit the number four, considered unlucky by Chinese. The...

Banks Back Switch to Renminbi for Trade

Robert Cookson September 1, 2010
As China’s economy continues to grow, the largest banks from around the globe seek favor and rapid profits there. HSBC relocated its chief executive from London to Hong Kong and, along with Citigroup and some other banks, HSBC offers discounts for companies that use the renminbi rather than the dollar for trading. “With renminbi trade settlement volumes expected to increase rapidly, banks are...

US Launched Corporate Globalization and First to End It

Joe Costello September 1, 2010
Globalization, people and ideas mixing through immigration and trade, has enriched the US but also added to complications. “America has been as successful, more so than most, using the principles and practices of this republic's founding, to mix the nationalities of Europe and more fitfully other peoples from across the planet into a relatively healthy concoction,” explains Joe Costello,...

US Leapfrogs Sluggish EU on Financial Reform

Wolfgang Reuter July 20, 2010
The US approved a financial reform law that could nudge the rest of the world, especially Europe, into preventing another financial meltdown. In an interconnected system, fast action on regulating complex securities and speculation can set global patterns into play, as noted by Wolfgang Reuter: “Americans have established a benchmark. European banks that do business in the United States will now...

Chinese Rating Agency Strips Western Nations of AAA Status

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard July 13, 2010
Credit agencies assign ratings based on the risk of timely payments, and some US agencies have been faulted for underestimating the risk of major Western corporations. Now, China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. demonstrate wariness about debt held by developed nations as well as how western credit agencies like Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s or Fitch evaluate that debt. Dagong emphasizes “...

Germany's Export Boom Has Trade Partners Stewing

Armin Mahler, Christian Reiermann, Wolfgang Reuter, Janko Tietz June 30, 2010
Fortunes turn quickly, and the experience of German manufacturers shows that some firms emerge from recession with renewed strength. But global trade partners that rely on deficit spending claim that German prosperity comes at others’ expense, as suggests this Spiegel Online article. Critics complain that a weak euro, German wage stability and failure to stimulate domestic demand decrease the...